


Of Ordinary Madness

by VanillivilovesGronk (Lukutoukka)



Category: National Football League RPF
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, M/M, maybe i'll continue it sometime in the future but for the moment i'm afraid not...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-05-22 20:10:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6092599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukutoukka/pseuds/VanillivilovesGronk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This September, Rob and JJ return to Ilvermorny , the North American equivalent of Hogwarts, for their sixth school year. Last year they lost the Quidditch Cup to the Slytherins, but with the new school year comes a new chance to fight for it. What else is the school year going to bring?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New year, new team?

**Author's Note:**

> Ladies and Gentlemen, very welcome to this work of first-times. It is the first time I write an english fanfiction, the first time with NFL Players and the first time I write something placed in a Hogwarts-ish setting. (And I guess I am also to first to pair Rob Gronkowski with JJ Watt...)
> 
> Concerning the setting: This is supposed to take place in the wizarding world we all know from "Harry Potter", but is set in North America, more exactly Ilvermorny, which is more or less the equivalent of Hogwarts. Since not much is known about Ilvermorny it is a wild mix of Hogwarts and my own imagination, which I hope you'll like.
> 
> Also, I'd like to give huge, huge thank you to SubwayWolf, who agreed to be my beta-reader and answers all my questions and concerns with the patience of a saint. I owe you!

A week after the beginning of his sixth school year, Rob was sitting in the stands of the Quidditch Stadium and watching the yearly try-outs for the Gryffindor team. Next to him sat JJ, the team’s other Beater. The two broad-shouldered guys shared some pumpkin pastry and watched as Tom Brady, their Captain and a good friend of both of them, was getting more and more frustrated as time passed by. He had started with sorting through the bunch of people who had wanted to be Beater. None of them turned out to be better than Rob and JJ, so they kept their positions and now watched as Tom tried to get a good team together for his last year. Sitting next to them were the new Keeper, Malcolm Butler, a third year none of them had known very well until today, and their last year’s seeker, Danny, who was probably also going to be this year’s seeker. He still had to wait for his try-out though, because Tom was now looking for Chasers. He obviously was a Chaser himself and it didn’t look like anyone could replace their other Chaser, Jules, a relatively short, muscular guy who had gotten all sexy over the summer. 

“So, Danny,” Rob began. 

“We see you noticed Jules,” JJ continued. 

“Got all sexy over the summer,” Rob ended. 

Malcolm looked very confused while Danny just blushed. “I ... well ... he ...” He stuttered, his eyes never leaving the flying Julian. Since he was a year younger than Rob, JJ and Julian – and two years younger than Tom - he hadn’t seen Julian much before today, which was both surprising and unsurprising. Unsurprising because this year’s schedules of the fifth and sixth years were quite different, and surprising because Tom usually liked to call a team meeting even before the try-outs: He was very competitive and thought that a team that got along with each other well also played better. This year he obviously hadn’t deemed it necessary as it had been clear from the beginning that not much would change and anyway, these were the earliest try-outs anyone could remember. 

“Don’t worry,” JJ assured him. 

“We understand you completely,” Rob ended the sentence. 

“And of course,” JJ began. 

“Our mouths are sealed,” Rob and JJ chorused together.

“Dude.” Malcolm had eyes as big as saucers, looking from JJ to Rob and back. “I heard about the two of you but ... the things I heard don’t do you justice.” He sounded impressed. 

JJ and Rob just laughed. That was something they heard on a regular basis, so they were used to it. They knew each other since their early childhood and often got mistaken for a couple. It didn’t bother them and in all honesty – they had had their fair share of snogging. 

A nearly inaudible “wooow” from Danny let them turn their attention back to the players flying through the air just in time to see a fourth year catch an impossible ball from Tom, hanging with his knees from his broom. “I think we just found our third Chaser,” JJ remarked.

Rob added: “Anyone know him? His name’s Cam, isn’t it?” 

Danny and Malcolm nodded and answered at the same time. “Yes.” 

Since neither of them seemed capable to say more – both of them looked stunned – Rob asked JJ: “I don’t remember him at the try-outs last year, do you? We could have needed him...” His voice trailed off as he remembered who had won last year’s cup: The damn Slytherins with that Peyton guy, who hadn’t had stopped grinning smugly ever since. When Rob and JJ had encountered him for the first time that year, he had even had the nerve to call them “the inseparable loser gays” – the only reason he would be able to play the first game this year was the fact that a teacher had stood nearby. 

“Indeed he could have.” A voice answered from behind them. “Sadly, because of a little incident at the end of his second year he wasn’t allowed to come to the try outs.”  
“Tom will be fuming when he hears about that.” JJ observed before turning around. “Oh, hey Luke!” 

Standing behind them was Luke Kuechly, a tall, dark haired fourth year with remarkable blue eyes who was widely known for helping his fellow Gryffindors out with cheap stuff directly from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, which was normally quite expensive in the US. 

“How did he get to be so good?” Rob asked while Luke sat down next to them.  
“Oh, you know, we practiced a bit all of last year and during the summer.” Luke didn’t quite manage to sound as nonchalant as he had planned, and Rob and JJ just shared a knowing look. And another slice of pumpkin pastry.

In the meantime, Danny and Malcolm had pulled themselves together and while Danny grabbed his broom in anticipation of Tom calling him and the other candidates for Seeker onto the pitch, Malcolm asked Luke: “Why didn’t you participate in the try-outs?”

Luke just laughed it off. “Nah man, I do enjoy a good game of Quidditch but I much rather watch it then play it. I like to have at least one of my feet at the ground. My true love is and always will be American Football.”

Malcolm looked confused. “What’s that?”

Danny, who was about to walk away because Tom had indeed just called for him and the others, slapped Malcolm on the shoulder, laughing. “It’s a sport Muggles like to play, you wizard snob!” He winked at Malcolm and was gone.

“Did he just call me a snob?!”

Rob was leaning against JJ’s shoulder, shaking uncontrollably with laughter. JJ, who was grinning widely as well, put one arm around Rob and pulled him close to his body to prevent him from falling down his seat. 

Luke mock pouted. “You don’t know Football?! Damn, Danny’s right! You ARE a wizard snob! Doesn’t know the first thing about Muggles…” He shook his head in disbelief and began to explain Football to Malcolm, gesticulating animatedly.  
He was interrupted when Jules and Cam, a dark guy just as tall as and only a little less lean than Tom, joined them. 

Luke interrupted himself immediately and jumped up, pulling Cam into a tight hug, which Cam gladly returned. “Told you you’d nail it,” Luke whispered in Cam’s ear.  
Cam blushed and leaned even more into the hug. “Thank you so much” he answered, just as quiet. 

As they noticed how the two of them cuddled and how Cam’s cheeks got a little colour, Rob and JJ exchanged knowing looks again, before shifting their attention to Jules, who looked at them expectantly.

“Sorry, did you just say something?” Rob asked.

Jules nodded and repeated his question: “I asked if you know what’s up with Danny? He just ignored me when we passed on the field.”

He sounded a little hurt and once again, Rob and JJ glanced at each other knowingly. Luckily, Jules was too preoccupied with following the try out which had just started to notice, so they quickly answered. Or rather, JJ answered, “No, man, we’ve got no idea what’s going on with Danny.” while Rob shot Malcolm a “you-better-be-quiet” look.

The lot of them then settled down to watch the last try-out; Cam and Luke sitting close to each other, their legs constantly touching, the both of them trying to explain to Malcolm what exactly Football was, how it was played and why Muggles liked it so much. Malcolm just looked more confused by the minute, which caused Rob to smile as he snuggled closer to JJ, who in turn strengthened his grip around Rob’s shoulders. Jules in turn had glued his eyes to Danny just like Danny’s had been glued to Jules earlier.

That evening, low murmuring and warm light filled the Gryffindor common room. Shadows and light, cast by three fireplaces, danced along the walls of the round room. Three quarters of the walls were lined with old, honey-coloured wooden bookshelves, stuffed with various books about mostly anything, most of them never read. Besides the three fire places and the entrance to the Gryffindor house, there were reading nooks build into the shelves and the wall, in irregular patterns and on every height, the higher ones reachable with wooden ladders the same colour as the shelves. The last quarter of the wall was dominated by a row of windows which were more than twice as tall as even Rob or JJ. Parts of them could be opened and during the day they filled the room with sunlight. To the right and the left of the windows were stairs leading to the girl’s bedrooms and bathrooms on the left and the boy’s bedrooms and bathrooms on the right, respectively. In front of the windows was a line of desks facing them. All around the room groups of four desks were scattered like islands. Mostly in front of the fireplaces, but also in between the groups of desks, there were armchairs. Some stood by themselves, some in groups of twos and threes and often that pattern changed every other day when students pulled them around, forming new groups or separating their favourite chair from a group to sit alone. In every reading nook and above each group of desks, a small light floated which could be regulated with an easy spell first years learned quite fast. Older students actually managed to create a light of their own when sitting in an armchair, which didn’t have “built-in” lights.

Right now, most of the older students were reading for their classes or sweating over homework while the first years were sitting together in small groups, whispering quietly, easy recognisable because of the amazed and overwhelmed look on their faces. 

Like most evenings, and this never ceased to amaze everyone, Rob and JJ had yet again managed to fit themselves into a big, red, comfy armchair with wooden feet, a high back and high, cushioned armrests, standing close to one of the fireplaces but at the same time overlooking most of the room. Everyone just called it “Robs and JJ’s armchair” because since they had started going to Ilvermorny six years ago, they always seemed to sit there together and with the exception of some of the new kids, no one besides Rob and JJ ever sat in it nor moved it. (Actually, in their third year, when they had started growing out of it, they had worked a “little” charm to increase the space of the armchair a bit, using one of the books normally no one ever read. Since, normally, increasing charms had to be registered, they weren’t going to tell anyone about it. It was just a small enlargement anyway, since they liked to cuddle and they figured no one would notice.) 

There they sat and cuddled while reading an essay about nonverbal spells for their transfiguration class, looking up every now and again to have a short glance around the room, sometimes followed by a whispered conversation.

At a group of desks near the windows, Tom was sitting with Cam and Malcolm, who had indeed stayed the only new guys on the team: as everyone had expected, Danny had been better than any of the other alternatives for Seeker. So Tom only had to fill Cam and Malcolm in on the team’s tactic. Both of them looked a bit overstrained, while Tom just kept on talking and talking and a chalk drew different moves on a board in rapid sequence all by itself. 

As Rob let his eyes wander around the room, he noticed Luke, who was sitting at a desk to the left from the small group, discussing match plans, dreamily looking at Cam. Luke seemed to notice Rob’s glance and looked up. When his and Rob’s eyes met, Luke’s cheeks turned dark red and he hastily looked down at the book lying in front of him, even though Rob would bet a lot of money that Luke did not absorb a single word. 

When Rob’s gaze travelled back, he noticed a quick glance of Cam in Luke’s direction, but Tom of course noticed Cam’s distraction immediately and called his name to get his attention back. Rob smiled and shook his head, as he leaned a bit closer to JJ’s ear to fill his best friend in on his observations.

A little while later, JJ furrowed his brow, nudged Rob in the side and nodded over to a semi-dark reading nook, where Jules and a girl with long, blond hair were sitting close together, obviously flirting.

“Oh dear,” Rob exhaled after a quick glance around the room. 

Danny was sitting in a reading nook on the opposite site of the room, looking at Jules and the girl as well. He didn’t look happy at all. With a loud thud Danny closed his book, before jumping out of the head-high nook he had been sitting in. He then stumped across the room to the stairs leading to the boy’s bedrooms, radiating anger and in spite of his slim build managed to look very frightening, attracting the attention of many students. 

A group of first year’s scattered out of his way with a scared look when he approached them, obviously not caring for much other than leaving the common room as fast as possible. As he passed by the desks where Tom was lecturing Cam and Malcolm, all three of them looked at him, Tom even interrupting himself and the chalk, which had been drawing a diagram, fell down.

“Let me go,” Danny hissed as Tom grabbed his arm to stop him and ask what was going on. Taken aback by this reaction, which was very uncommon for Danny and an even more uncommon thing for Tom to hear, Tom let go. A second later, Danny had vanished up the stairs. 

With a concerned look on his face, Tom dismissed Cam and Malcolm and hastily made his way across the room to Rob and JJ. With a flick of his wand, he moved an armchair next to Rob’s and JJ’s, in which he sat down the second he reached it.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Tom asked. Even though Tom always had an open ear for his players, no matter what, most of the team went to talk to Rob and JJ when they had a problem. So whenever Tom didn’t know what was going on, he went to talk to Rob and JJ, and to be honest he had to admit that they were much better at dealing with problems than he was. At least personal problems. Right now he wouldn’t get much of an answer, though. The look on their faces said everything. “So he didn’t talk to you, then. Do you have a feeling?”

Now both Rob and JJ nodded.“Jules,” JJ said and Rob nodded over to the nook with the flirting Edelman, who had been oblivious to Danny’s dramatic departure.

“Jules?” Tom looked confused. “Did they fight? Over that girl, or what?”

“Well,” Rob managed to pull that one word quite long. He shared a look with JJ who just shrugged. With Danny behaving like this, Tom should know why. He would know anyway sooner or later, so they could as well tell him. “We think Danny has a crush on Jules,” Rob blurted out.

JJ explained: “They were kinda close last year and look how Jules looks now; I totally understand him. Actually, we thought Jules might have a thing for Danny too, but obviously we were wrong about that.” 

The three of them let that sink in in silence. Tom couldn’t think about a case where Rob and JJ had been wrong about stuff like this. They always knew first, sometimes even before the persons concerned knew. Actually, Tom was pretty sure that never before they had been wrong.

“Can you two talk to Danny, please? Now? And maybe find out what’s going on with Jules during the next few days?” Tom asked. 

Rob and JJ nodded and started unfolding themselves out of the chair.

“You know,” Tom remarked, watching them. “If I didn’t see you sitting in that chair all the time and didn’t know better, I would swear it was impossible for the two of you to fit in there together without an increasing spell…” He grinned mischievously and winked at them, before he got up and walked back to get his board, leaving behind a blushing Rob and a coughing JJ.


	2. Dinner

Danny was tired and hungry. After the try-outs, Tom had wanted them to fly together as a team. For a long time. So not only had they missed lunch because of the try-outs, but also spent half of the afternoon in the air. Now, they were on their way back to the castle, Danny walking at the back of the group. In the front, Rob and JJ were laughing and talking, but then again they had been thoughtful enough to bring along something to eat. They were followed by Cam, Luke and Malcolm, who were dragging their brooms behind them, until Tom called them out on that.

“Don’t you dare to handle your brooms like this!” Tom didn’t like it to see equipment handled badly. 

Malcolm sighed and put his broom over his shoulder. Cam wanted to do so as well, but Luke was faster. He grabbed Cam’s broom and carried it over his shoulder. 

Tom, who had been talking to Jules about this year’s tactic and their opposing teams, walked a little faster and closed the gap to talk to Rob and JJ, leaving Jules behind in front of Danny. 

Jules... Danny suppressed a sigh. Jules had become a good friend last year and over the summer they had constantly exchanged letters and Danny had found himself slowly falling in love with Jules. And now, here Danny was, looking at Jules’ very well defined butt. How had he managed to build up so much muscle over the summer?

Danny was yanked out of his thoughts when Jules slowed down and adapted his steps to Danny’s. “Great try-outs!” Jules announced. “Have you been flying over the summer?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah. I wanted to be out of the house as much as possible and I think my parents appreciated that as well.” This time he actually sighed. His parents didn’t like the thought that he wouldn’t continue the mighty name of the Amendola family. 

Jules wrapped one arm around Danny’s hip and pulled him close while walking. Somehow, he also managed to nuzzle his nose in Danny’s hair.  
“It’s going to be all right,” he whispered into Danny’s ear.

Danny was suddenly no longer tired. Jules body so close felt perfect and Merlin, even after half a day on the broom he smelled good. Danny felt strangely high and when Jules drew back his arm, he was a bit disappointed. He wanted to be closer to Jules, just closer.

He shook his head to free himself from these thoughts – after all, there wouldn’t be more than friendship between the two of them. For a second, Danny allowed himself to think about how it would be to have a friendship with Jules like the one Rob and JJ had. The two of them shared literally anything – including their beds and clothes. It was clear to everyone that the two of them were more than just friends, and whenever someone asked they would just answer: “Naa, we’re just real good friends.” Sometimes Danny wondered if they were the only ones not noticing that they were practically in a relationship or if they were noticing and if so, why they weren’t in a relationship officially.

He pulled himself together and asked Jules: “So, what did you do over summer?” 

Jules laughed. “Oh, I wasn’t able to fly a lot, you know, what with living in a small Muggle town. Instead, I regularly hit the gym in hopes that it was enough training for Tom not to get angry with me.”

Danny was confused. “Who is “The Jim” and why were you hitting him?”

In the meantime, they had reached the big entrance doors and the others had already vanished into the castle. Jules burst out laughing. Indeed he was laughing so hard, he had to lean against the stone wall to not fall down. “Not a guy,” he eventually managed to press out. “A gym. G-Y-M. It’s a place where Muggles go to train their bodies. You know, you can lift weights and run and ...” He managed to stop laughing and got a little more serious. “I don’t even know how to properly describe it to you. One day I’ll take you and show you a gym.” He proposed.

Danny was still confused, but kept his doubts to himself. Obviously this gym had played a huge part in Jules’ transformation and whatever produced such fine bodies had to be good. The rest of the way up to the Gryffindor common room they spent talking about their first week back at school. 

Tom was waiting for them in the common room. “There you are,” he said. “I want the team to eat dinner together tonight. Go up and take a shower and then we’re going to go down to dinner together,” he announced. 

Danny and Jules just exchanged an irritated glance, but at the same time they knew that Tom was right and a team that got along off the pitch was better in the air and both of them had enjoyed the team evenings last year. So they quickly made their way up the stairs and parted in front of the fifth year’s bedroom.

A few minutes later, Danny was standing in the shower, relaxing his muscles under the warm water. And then he thought about how Jules had looked earlier today, how his body had felt, so close to his own and his scent and he was showering a floor above him right now and suddenly Danny wasn’t relaxed anymore at all. Instead he was telling himself, that he shouldn’t do this, this wasn’t right, how could he jerk off thinking about one of his best friends? But he couldn’t, didn’t want to stop the pictures that flooded his mind and he hesitantly closed his hand around his cock.

Jules, laughing at him, Jules after a win, his blue eyes radiating joy, his huge grin, Jules earlier today, flying, stretching to catch a Quaffel overthrown by Cam, later his arm around Danny’s hip, his voice in Danny’s ear and his scent in Danny’s nose. With Jules’ name on his lips and bright red cheeks, Danny came.

\-------  
When the team assembled in the common room, Danny couldn’t look Jules in the eyes. He was pretty sure that he would turn redder than a howler and his face would practically scream what he had done to any observer, should he look at Jules. 

However, when they arrived in the Great Hall and took their seats, Danny couldn’t ignore Jules any longer, because Jules sat down next to him. On Danny’s other side sat Tom, next to whom Rob and JJ were waiting hungrily for the food. Opposite them, Luke and Cam were sitting very close together and next to them, opposite Tom, Malcolm yawned into his goblet with pumpkin juice.

The others started talking, getting to know Malcolm and Cam, asking questions and listening to the answers, but Danny was too preoccupied with Jules’ warm body next to him to listen properly. He was startled when suddenly an arm sneaked around his waist and his cheeks began to burn a bit. He turned his head to look at Jules.

“You seem to be tired,” Jules said and pulled Danny close to him. 

Danny stiffened for a second, before relaxing again and nodding. “First week of school is always tiring,” he said, when the food turned up on the table. “And I’m hungry,” Danny continued, reaching for a bowl. 

Jules chuckled and removed his arm from around Danny’s waist to eat as well. For a second, Danny was sad that he wasn’t in Jules’ arms anymore, but he reminded himself instantly that Jules was just being friendly and anyway, and there was still Jules tight pressed against his... Jules WAS just being friendly, wasn’t he?

After a few minutes of silent eating, Jules mumbled: “Damn, this is soo good. Did you already try this?” He was pointing to a plate where a new kind of pastries was piled up. Because Danny was chewing, he could only shake his head no. He hadn’t want to do any culinary testing and had until now stuck to what he knew. Jules had cut a piece off of his pastry and was now holding it out on his fork for Danny to try.

Danny swallowed and looked at Jules. Back at the fork. Back at Jules. Was he supposed to eat it from Jules’ fork? Was Jules feeding him? And what exactly was this pastry filled with?

Jules seemed to be able to read these questions from his face, because he said: “Come on eat it, it’s not gonna bite you. It’s filled with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, it’s good.” He moved his fork closer to Danny’s mouth. 

With a shrug of his shoulders, Danny leaned in and closed his lips around Jules’ fork.  
Chewing, he leaned back. The pastry was indeed very good. He swallowed and smiled and Jules. “I like it.” Jules smiled happily and winked at Danny, who was certain that he blushed deeply. In an attempt to hide it, he turned his face to the table. He was frantically searching for words, trying to say something clever, but he couldn’t think of anything, so he kept silent.

Jules didn’t seem to mind though; he kept feeding Danny little bits of everything, often in uncommon combinations. While Danny gladly obliged, his mind was racing and he was trying to distance himself a bit from what was happening. It was just too good to be true; Jules certainly wasn’t flirting with him. Or was Danny wrong and Jules was indeed flirting with him? But why would he? But there was Jules’ thigh pressed onto Danny’s, his fingers lightly brushing over Danny’s arm every time he wanted Danny to try something new.

Jules was also more or less constantly chatting. About the past summer (“It felt strange to know that you – no one on the team, I mean – were not just around the corner like here...”), the try-outs today (“Did you see Cam’s catch? It was a real bad pass from Tom...” Danny threw a glance to his other side, but Tom was chatting with Malcolm and didn’t hear Jules, who continued on, saying “There were so many bad students; I mean how could they THINK they had a chance? What did they want there?”) and the following training (“I think we got a good team this year and once we’re completely levelled I bet you we can beat anyone!” With Jules’ next sentence Danny, who had relaxed a bit, blushed again: “I really liked how you pulled off that Wronski Feint, that was absolutely awesome!”).

By the end of the dinner, Danny was relaxed and pretty sure that Jules was indeed flirting with him. While Danny was still a bit reserved and didn’t do much talking, he looked forward to an evening with Jules. Yet, when the rest of the team left and Danny stood up to join them, Jules stayed behind. Danny shrugged his shoulders, said “Well, I guess I see you later,” and hurried after the team.

A little while later, he settled down in a reading nook in the common room, focusing on a text for his potion class, not paying much attention to what was happening around him. He was halfway through the instructions of brewing the “Draught of Peace”, when he looked up, stretched his neck and let his gaze travel through the common room.

As his gaze fell upon Rob and JJ, who – of course – sat in their armchair, cuddling and obviously reading out of the same book, he smiled. His smiled turned into a grin, when he saw Cam and Malcolm being introduced to the team’s tactic by Tom. 

When his gaze swept further, he suddenly felt very cold. There was Jules. Sitting in a semi-dark nook, his arm around a pretty blonde Danny was relatively sure was called Blanche and pretty obvious flirting.

In Danny, his emotions were raging and suddenly he wanted no more than to be alone. He grabbed his bag and his book, didn’t bother with the ladder and jumped out of his reading nook. He fell deeper than he had anticipated but he didn’t care. His eyes were fixed upon the stairs to the bedrooms; his only wish was to be out of the common room as fast as possible. He barely noticed that a group of first years scattered in front of him and when Tom grabbed for his arm, Danny snapped at him and continued his way. The second he was in his bed and his curtains were closed, he inhaled deeply and silent tears started streaming over his cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone *waves*  
> I wanted to thank all of you for your lovely comments for Chapter1 and I just wanted to say, that I am sooo happy that you are just as excited about this story than I am.  
> Also, I'm planning to update this story once a week - though I might change the days to Monday.  
> A big shout out - again - to SubwayWolf for beta-ing this whole story. (I'm never going to stop acknowledging this, so you better get used to it ;))  
> Should any questions turn up - be it because of my changes to Hogwarts or because you haven't read Harry Potter as much as I am and are not too familiar with this world - please don't hesitate to contact me!


	3. Danny

Rob and JJ slowly made their way up the spiral staircase to the bedroom of the fifth years, their broad frames only just fitting between the walls. Gryffindor house was located in a tower and the bedrooms and bathrooms of each year were located above it: The first years started out on the first floor (above the already high common room), climbing up a floor with each year. That meant that the seventh year’s bedroom was all the way up, but since it had a trapdoor leading to the top of the tower, everyone liked this arrangement. Reaching the landing on the fifth floor, Rob and JJ opened the door leading to the bedroom.

“Danny?” Rob asked in a soft voice, as they stepped into the room, which, like all bedrooms had only one straight wall: the one with the door in. Five big canopy beds were forming a semicircle in the room, their foot ends facing the door. Between two of them always was a window; each of them had a wooden chest at their end and curtains in different colours. Four of them were empty, their curtains open. The fifth, which Rob and JJ knew belonged to Danny, had closed curtains the colour of a starry night sky, including little silver stars.

“You want to talk?” JJ added. Danny didn’t answer, but the curtains of his bed opened, revealing Danny, who lay on his stomach, hugging one of his dark blue pillows, silent tears running over his cheeks. 

Leaving their bags next to the bed, they climbed into the bed, one on each side of Danny. Before putting their wands aside, Rob let the curtains close and JJ cast the Muffliato Charm, so no one would hear them talking should they come in. Then they took Danny in their arms, forming a human sandwich with Danny in the middle.

“Do you want to tell us what’s going on?” Rob softly asked. Danny started shaking and sobbing and could only shake his head no. Without another word, JJ and Rob snuggled even closer to Danny and strengthened their grip around his shaking body. Both Rob and JJ remembered some long afternoons turning into evenings and even stretching deep into the nights, they had spent exactly like this about half a year ago, when Danny had first discovered that he was much more interested in boys than in girls and his family did not approve. 

Some time later, Danny had quietened down and started talking. “You know, last year Jules and I got to be close friends, yes? And when I figured out that I am gay, he was totally cool with that and unlike my family he supported me unconditionally.” 

Rob and JJ nodded, knowing this already. 

“I could always come to talk to him and stuff and during the summer we were in constant contact, which help me a lot putting up with my family.” Danny continued. 

Rob and JJ frowned at each other. Of course they had written Danny regularly too, but they had thought Danny’s parents had got over whatever had bothered them and were treating their only son okay. Had they been wrong? 

But before they had a chance to inquire about that, Danny already continued. “I think I had a small crush on him all the time, and over the summer it got a little bigger, but I always thought he was straight as an arrow. Then, I’m not even sure why, I only ever ran into him today and damn, he looks so hot! You know, I was trying all day to get over that shock and set myself back to normal, until dinner.” 

Dinner? Rob and JJ exchanged confused looks. On Tom’s order, the whole Quidditch team had sat together during dinner and even though the food had been delicious as always and both of them were starved after first the try-outs and then some pre-training with everyone, they had managed to notice the glances between Cam and Luke and how close they had sat together, Luke just ignoring Tom’s irritated glances and inserting himself right into the team. They hadn’t noticed anything between Danny and Jules, though.

“I swear to Merlin, he was constantly flirting with me all during dinner! Telling me that I looked good, I had done very well during the day with the team, constantly giving me stuff to try from his fork and I don’t think I spent a whole minute without his thigh pressed to mine. And then he was sitting there with this girl...” Danny swallowed hard. “I’m overreacting, aren’t I?” he asked. 

Rob shook his head no.

“Of course you are not overreacting,” JJ assured Danny.

“Jules is being a prick.” Rob could barely contain his anger. What had Jules been thinking?!

“Thank you,” Danny sighed and snuggled deeper into that comfortable warmth of the two big bodies in his bed. “Could you stay till I’m asleep?” he asked a little while later, already sounding half asleep. 

“Sure,” JJ answered immediately. 

“But you have to change and brush your teeth first,” Rob said, standing up to let Danny go to the bathroom. 

Danny rolled his eyes. “Sure, Daaaad.” he cheekily said with half a grin on his face. He got up anyway and left without opening the curtains. 

Even though he had half a smile on his face, Rob sighed as he lay down on his back, looking up at JJ who lay on his side next to him. “What the hell was Jules thinking?” Rob asked, all tense, looking up at JJ, who shrugged - as far as shrugging is possible lying on your side - and started rubbing Rob’s chest in soothing circles with one hand, before answering: “Nothing, probably.”

“Sometimes I just want to take him and - I don’t know, shake some sense into this guy. I really don’t understand it.” Rob furrowed his brow.

“Now, you better relax a bit or you’re going to run around with a deep furrow forever.” JJ smiled, smoothing Rob’s forehead with the hand that had just been on Rob’s chest. Rob sighed, but closed his eyes and actually relaxed a bit, which was just what JJ wanted. 

He bent his head down to Rob’s ear. “Now, I bet I can get you even more relaxed and even get a smile out of you,” JJ teasingly whispered.

“Oh, you do?” Rob asked and JJ didn’t need to see his face to know that his friend was already smiling.

“Yes,” he whispered, before he tenderly nibbled at Rob’s ear and slowly made his way to Rob’s lips, kissing and teasingly nippling at the other one’s jaw. When he finally reached Rob’s lips, both of them were smiling and they shared an affectionate kiss.

“Hey! No make-out session in my bed!” Danny was back, only wearing shorts, showing off his tanned, well-defined body. 

“We’re not making out,” JJ said, straightening up and moving away a bit from Rob, creating some room for Danny to slip into, which Danny gladly did, snuggling back into the warm bed.

“Don’t tell Jules…” he mumbled a few minutes later, already half asleep.

“Of course not,” Rob assured him and not much later, Danny was breathing heavy, indicating that he had fallen asleep. Rob and JJ waited a few more minutes before carefully getting up and leaving the room.

In their own bedroom, which was similarly structured as the fifth year’s bedroom, they found two beds with their curtains already closed. Jules’ bed wasn’t one of them, which probably was the best. Rob padded over to his bed, coloured in a light, blueish turquoise, left his bag and went for the bathroom, while JJ sat down on his own bed, coloured in a warm yellow. 

JJ wrote a quick note to Tom, telling him not to worry too much, promising a chat in the morning. He then looked at his cat, Krum, who was named after Victor Krum, the Quidditch player: “Would you be so kind as to bring this note to Tom?” 

Krum, a big black tomcat with a white-tipped tail and one white paw, opened his eyes slowly, seemed to consider the question for a moment and then gracefully walked over to where JJ was sitting, allowing him to attach the note to his collar. He then meowed before jumping of the bed and left to search for Tom.

Just as JJ was about to get into the bathroom, Rob exited it, asking: “Yours or mine?”

“Yours,” JJ answered. “I sent Krum to Tom and he will be in a much better mood when he gets my bed for tonight in exchange.” Rob just laughed and continued his way, leaving JJ alone in the bathroom.

A few minutes later, JJ joined Rob in the turquoise bed, drawing the curtains closed, before crawling under the blankets and pulling Rob close to him. Rob complained a bit because of JJ’s cold hands, but huddled against his chest nonetheless, facing JJ. 

“Good night kiss?” Rob asked. JJ smiled and gladly obliged. Smiling, he cupped his hands around Rob’s face and slowly, lightly brushed their noses together. “Good night,” he whispered, before leaning all the way in and capturing Rob’s lips for a light, playful kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, the wonderful SubwayWolf was the beta reader for this chapter and I am deeply grateful.
> 
> One thing I would like to say is: The uniforms I have in mind are those of the movies, not those of the books, which means they are very similiar to the uniforms british students wear (I think.), completed with a cloak. (The uniforms in the books are robes, and wizards usually don't wear pants in the books, but I think pants are way more useful, so in my story they wear pants.)
> 
> I hope you liked the new chapter ;)


	4. 5 Years Earlier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, some of you said that they were not too familiar with the HP-Universe and I was thinking about how to introduce Quidditch to you ... and came up with a Chapter playing in the first year of Rob and JJ. So, just to make this completely clear, this chapter takes place 5 years earlier than the rest of the story ;)  
> As always, many thanks to SubwayWolf for beta-ing; also many thanks to Kiray who, with SubwayWolf, sorted some NFL players into houses - I would be lost without this wonderful list!

The first years stood in a line at the head of the Great Hall, waiting to be sorted into houses. Behind them sat the teachers, in front of them were four long tables, one for each house: Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Hundreds of faces were turned towards them, watching interested.

While Slytherins were known to be ambitious, cunning and clever and strong leaders, they also had a strong sense of self-preservation and tended to hesitate before acting, which earned them not the best reputation. Hufflepuffs on the other hand were mostly hard-working, friendly, honest and loyal students, who rated fair play very high. Though valuing hard work, dedication and patience, they were not as competitive as the other houses and had lots of friendly relationships to them. Ravenclaw students were known to be eccentric and often thought along new and different paths, most of them very talented, and on top of that motivated witches and wizards, their house prizing intellect, wisdom and wit over other traits. Gryffindors were mostly daring, nerving and had a lot of courage, yet they tended to be reckless and sometimes were quite short-tempered.

Rob was nervous. Really nervous. His brothers had not told him how they would be sorted into the houses. Instead they had dropped hints that it would possibly be painful, that every now and again someone failed and that he, Rob, would probably end up in Hufflepuff, or, even worse, Slytherin. JJ, his best friend, stood next to him, and was just as calm as Rob was nervous.

Between the line of first years and the house tables stood a single chair, an old, often patched wizard’s hat. The witch who had earlier introduced herself as Professor Johnson, Head of Gryffindor, held the hat up.

“You,” she shot the first years a sharp glance. “Are going to put on the Sorting Hat, which, like its name says, is going to sort you into the different houses. I’m going to call you up alphabetically and afterwards you’re going to sit with your new house.” She pointed towards the tables behind her.

Rob relaxed a bit and leaned towards JJ. “That doesn’t sound too bad.” He whispered in a low voice.

JJ answered just as quietly: “I told you your brothers were just making fun of us.” Since they were neighbours and their parents were good friends, they had spent most of their childhood together. With Rob’s brothers – three of them older, two of them in Gryffindor, the oldest one in Ravenclaw, one younger – and JJ’s two younger brothers it had often felt more like a huge family or like a never ending summer camp.

In the meantime, Professor Johnson had begun to call up names: “Allen, Ryan” was the first one. A boy with dark blonde hair stepped to the chair, sat down and put the hat on, which slipped over his eyes. There was silence, everyone’s eyes were glued to the boy with the hat, until the rim of the head opened and called out: “HUFFLEPUFF!” The second table from the left cheered. Ryan Allen took off the hat and made his way over to the table, looking relieved.  
“Bündchen, Gisele” was a tall, blonde girl with long hair and sorted into Gryffindor, while “Bündchen, Patricia”, who was obviously her sister, was sorted into Ravenclaw.  
“Edelman, Julian Francis,” Professor Johnson called and the boy on Rob’s other side stumbled forward. He was a small boy with chubby cheeks and brown hair that fell into his forehead. He sat down on the chair and put the hat on. Half a minute of expectant silence later, the hat shouted out: “GRYFFINDOR” and again the table to the far right cheered.

When Professor Johnson called “Gronkowski, Robert James”, Rob stepped to the chair. The hat slid over his eyes and blocked Rob’s sight on the older students.  
“Hmm,” a slim voice said in his ear. “I see... Well, that’s easy then... You’re a GRYFFINDOR!” Obviously the hat shouted out the last word into the Great Hall. Rob grinned relieved, took off the hat and gave JJ a thumps-up, before walking over to where his brothers sat. Gordie Jr. waved from the Ravenclaw table and Dan slapped him on the shoulder. “Welcome in the best house, little brother!” he exclaimed, while Rob sat down, smiling at the small boy sitting opposite him. Now that he was sorted, he was relaxed and couldn’t wait to make new friends. The only thing he hoped for now was that JJ would be sorted to Gryffindor as well.

The boy opposite him was called Julian, remembered Rob and held out a hand across the table. “I’m Rob, nice to meet you.”

Julian smiled back shyly and took the offered hand. “I’m Julian.” His eyes were a bright blue.

“We’re going to be classmates,” Rob smiled one last time at Julian, before turning back to the first years who hadn’t been sorted yet, just in time to see “Manning, Elisha Nelson” walk to the chair. After a relatively long time, the hat called: “HUFFLEPUFF” and the boy made his way over to the Hufflepuff table. On his way between the Hufflepuff and Slytherin tables, he was stopped by a Slytherin boy who seemed to be his brother. After a little talk, he looked up and waved to the Ravenclaw table, where a fourth year who looked just like Eli waved back, before sitting down on the Hufflepuff table.

Some time later, Professor Johnson finally called “Watt, Justin James” and JJ made his way to the chair. As he sat down, Rob was suddenly nervous again. What if his best friend was sorted into another house? But he didn’t need to worry: the hat made his decision even faster than with Rob and half a minute later, a hugely grinning JJ sat down next to Rob, fist bumping with Dan and calling over to Glenn: “Bet you thought you’d seen the last of us!”

*****  
It was the second Saturday morning Rob and JJ were at Ilvermorny and they were still in awe, though they left this stage behind fast. They were eating breakfast with Dan and Glenn and a few seats away sat Julian. Dan and Glenn were both eating fast, because they were planning in participating in the try-outs. Rob and JJ took their time and discussed their chances next year, since first years were not allowed on the teams.

Once Dan and Glenn were gone, they were interrupted: Julian had made his way over to them and looked shyly at them: “What is Quidditch?” Rob and JJ shared a look and then grinned at Julian.

“Muggle born, hmm?” JJ asked. Julian nodded.

“No worries,” Rob assured him.

“We’re gonna tell you everything you need to know!” JJ exclaimed excited and grabbed some toast and jam, while Rob was putting some waffles in a napkin.

“Grab something to eat, if you’re not already finished,” Rob told Julian and took one last gulp out of his goblet before standing up.

“We’re going to watch the try-outs!” JJ stood up as well. Julian looked back and forth between them.

“Since when do you know each other?” he asked with big eyes and hurried to follow them out the doors, out towards the Quidditch stadium.

Since JJ was chewing on a bite of toast, Rob answered: “Well, I think we know each other our whole lives. We were neighbours.” JJ nodded approvingly. “And we’re only two months born apart.”

They settled down in some seats high up, higher than the team aspirants. Julian looked down curiously: The stadium itself was only a bit bigger than the football stadiums he knew, the ground was just a plain meadow, no lines, nothing drawn on it, except for a small circle right in the middle. On each end of the pitch rose three posts with a ring on top. They were different in height, but even the smallest seemed to be at least 30 ft high. Julian wondered about that, until the players, until now huddled under on one side of the field, mounted their brooms and flew. “Oh yes,” Julian thought and felt stupid. “Flying.”

Somehow, JJ and Rob managed to explain the most important things about Quidditch to Julian while eating. “A Quidditch team consists of seven players,” Rob began, “Three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker.”

“There are four balls,” JJ continued, “A Quaffel, two Bludgers and the Golden Snitch.”

“The Bludgers and the Snitch are enchanted, but the Quaffel is just a ball.” Rob explained, before taking a huge bite of a waffle.

“The Chasers try to score by throwing the Quaffel through one of the goal rings of the opposing team. No matter through which ring they shoot, it gives the scoring team ten points.” JJ took over. “The Keeper of course tries to catch the Quaffel before it goes through his Goal Rings.”

Rob swallowed. “The Bludgers are enchanted, so they try to hit the players. The Beaters try to keep the Bludgers away from their own players and sent them in the direction of the opposing team members.”

“Which leaves the Seeker and the Snitch.” JJ started.

Rob chimed in: “Some say, the most important player.”

JJ laughed. “Well, you’re certainly going to lose without one. The Seeker tries to catch the snitch. When he does, the game is over and the Seeker’s team gets 150 points, which often means that they win.”

“Only problem is,” Rob points out, “That the snitch is damn fast and hard to see, because it is about the size of a walnut and golden. It also has silver wings.”

“Okay...” Jules thought he did understand everything, but he wasn’t too sure about it.  
JJ laughed. “No worries man, it’s kinda hard at first, but you just stick to us and we’re going to explain it over and over again, if we need to.” Rob nodded.

They stayed a while longer, but the try-outs weren’t that interesting, so they walked back to the castle. On their way, they met a lanky second year with his broom over his shoulder, who obviously hadn’t made it into the team. Angrily, he kept kicking a small stone.

“Too small, they said... Come back next year. Pah,” he said to himself.

“Hey man,” JJ said. “Don’t be sad.”

“What’s your name?” Rob asked, while Julian stayed back a bit.  
The boy looked up and stopped walking. “I’m Tom,” he declared, his green eyes sparkling. “And one day I’m going to be Team Captain.”

JJ looked at him. “No doubt about that. We-” he pointed to himself and Rob, “-are going to be your Beaters. Now, what about some flying with that beautiful broom, and our new friend Julian over there who’s never sat on a broom before?”

For a second, Tom looked at them with a questioning face, then he broke into a smile. “Sure,” he said, “we’re going to teach him how to fly!”

Julian looked terrified. “Flying?!”

The other three boys just laughed and pulled him over to where they had some space. “It’s easy,” Rob assured him.

With a questioning look to Tom, who nodded, JJ said: “Tom’s going to show you, we’ll explain, and then you just do what he’s doing, okay?” Julian nodded slowly, still unsure.

“It’s really quite easy,” Rob began. “We’re going to start with the broom lying on the ground. You just hold your hand over it and say: Up!” While Rob talked, Tom did exactly that. The broom moved up into his hand.

“Then you just put one leg over the broom and hold your hands like Tom does. You’re going to push yourself of the ground – with all your strength – just hold the broom level. When you’re up a bit, you lean forward to come back down,” JJ stated.  
“Or you just fly around a bit, if you feel comfortable up in the air,” Rob winked at him.  
Julian was a little white around the nose, but nodded nonetheless and watched Tom. When Tom was back on the ground, Julian took a deep breath and stood next to the broom.

“Up!” Julian said and indeed, the broom sprang into his hand. He climbed onto it, took another deep breath and pushed himself off the ground. Once he was in the air though, he felt wonderfully free and instead of coming down again, he followed Rob’s proposal and tested everything he could. The other three were standing on the ground, laughing and waving up to him.

“We found a natural,” Rob grinned, pleased with himself, and the others nodded.  
Tom frowned a bit: “Now, how are we getting him back down?”


	5. Gryffindor vs Slytherin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back to the future *coughs* sry, what I actually meant is... Back to where we left with Chapter 3.

Over the next few weeks, the normal school routine came back. Tom had somehow managed to find an afternoon where all seven team members had some spare time. So instead of training two times a week like last year, they now gathered on the field every Saturday morning, every Tuesday afternoon and every Thursday evening, no matter how the weather was. However, in spite of that tight schedule and the hard training, no one was complaining: The first game of the year would be against the Slytherins and no one could stand their behaviour anymore. All of them wanted to win that game. (And of course the following ones; the Quidditch Cup was everyone’s dream.)

Besides that tight training schedule, all of them, excluding Cam and Malcolm, had much to learn: Tom had his N.E.W.T.s coming up at the end of his last year; Danny, being the perfectionist he always had been, was beginning to worry about his O.W.L.s; and Rob, JJ and Jules had the increased workload of every sixth year in the subjects they had chosen for their last two years.

Nonetheless, Rob and JJ managed to have an eye on both Cam and Luke and Danny and Jules. Danny had distanced himself a bit from Jules, and neither of them noticed Jules flirting with Danny. However, Jules had started to flirt aggressively with nearly every girl he encountered; drawing the line at anyone younger than 14, but not caring at all about the house the girls belonged to, which had earned him some quite impressive slaps across the face and pretty harsh answers from most of the Slytherin girls he met. Rob and JJ were sure that something was off, but whenever they tried to talk with Jules, no matter if they were alone or together, he brushed them off. So they stopped asking and began to assure him that he could always come and talk to them. After the third of these assurances, Jules had began to roll his eyes, but they felt it was important to not let him forget.

Instead they were now focussing on Cam and Luke, watching them from afar. Whenever one of them was around, the other one wasn’t very far, Luke even going so far as to always accompany Cam to their training. Tom had rolled his eyes and huffed and puffed a bit, but in the end he didn’t mind. They were always sitting as close together as possible, constantly touching. When they couldn’t sit together, they were exchanging constant looks. Tom, who had tried to keep Luke out of their team meetings in the common room, had finally given in and allowed Luke to sit with them, because Cam was a lot more attentive with Luke next to him. And yet, they didn’t seem to be a couple. Sometimes, a certain awkwardness accompanied their actions, they seemed to shy away from a border only they knew and whenever the other one wasn’t looking they threw longing glances at each other. 

After watching this for a few weeks, Rob and JJ were in full on set-up mode. They were just waiting to catch one of them alone, which was harder than they thought it would be. Eventually they gave in and asked for help. Tom was reluctant at first, when they talked to him, but after a little nudge from his girlfriend of two years, Gisele (“They set us up, this is the least you can do!”), he agreed to keep Cam back after dinner the next day with some Quidditch stuff, which would hopefully give Rob and JJ the chance to talk to Luke. The day after that, Clay Matthews, a big fourth year with long blonde hair, known for his complex pranks, would separate the two of them by talking to Luke in secret about his next prank.

About two weeks before the Quidditch game, they went to work and all went over the way they had planned out. Thursday evening, after dinner, Tom held Cam back to talk about some of the aspects of the training earlier and Rob and JJ dragged the reluctant Luke with them.

“This could take some time,” they explained while walking through the castle to their common room with Luke between them. “Tom is very meticulous with the game coming up and we meant to talk to you alone anyway.”

“You did?” Luke asked with a confused look on his face.

“Yes,” JJ confirmed. “We wanted to ask you about that thing between you and Cam. What’s going on?”

Instead of answering, Luke blushed deeply.

“You know,” Rob remarked “It’s bullshit to think of friendship and romance as being different. They’re not. They’re just variations of the same love. Variations of the same desire to be close.”*

Luke looked even more confused and JJ rolled his eyes. “You read that Muggle author again? Do you really have to quote him? Now?”

Rob fake pouted for a moment. “His name’s David Levithan and yes, I like his books very much and, contrary to you, I don’t reduce my reading to wizards and witches books. I like to have an open horizon. Besides, I deemed it fitting!”

JJ had to admit that he wasn’t completely wrong about the fitting part, but Luke still look confused, so JJ explained: “What Rob means,” he shot Rob an irritated glance, “is that the two of you should act on your feelings. There are clearly more than friendly feelings involved.”

Luke stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes tremendous. “You ... you ... you mean ... you mean Cam might feel the same way I do?” he stuttered.

“How can two people just be so blind?” Rob asked, throwing his hands in the air and JJ added: “Of course he does.”

In that moment, they reached the portrait hole leading into the Gryffindor common room, and once inside, they patted Luke on the shoulders and left him alone.

The next day, Luke’s eyes rarely left Cam and the before longing glances were now questioning and hopeful. In the evening, Clay managed to steer Luke away from Cam. The two had been sitting together with JJ and Rob and the second Clay and Luke were out of earshot, they had the exact same conversation with Cam they had had with Luke, including the Levithan quote and their short tiff.

However, over the next days, neither Cam nor Luke actually acted on their newly won insight and for the time being, with the upcoming match ahead, Rob and JJ decided to do nothing. 

Like always before a match, the tension grew in the whole castle and there was a lot of trashtalk going on between the rivalling houses. The older team members already knew this and had their own ways to cope: Tom kept silent and always had an “I-know-I-am-better-than-you” half-smile on his face whenever he stepped out of the common room; Jules just ignored any snarky remarks in his directions; Danny always had an answer, his best one being “Yeah, and you wish it was yours.” to an aggressively straight Slytherin guy, who had called him “Cocksucker”. And Rob and JJ either were the first to open their mouths or they silently built up in front of the one who was screaming something at them, which normally shut everyone down. Neither Cam nor Malcolm were used to this, though, and especially Malcolm sometimes had a hard time in the hallways until the rest of the team started to accompany them during breaks.

On game day, trashtalking reached a to-date never-seen peak when a group of Slytherins awaited the Gryffindor team at the doors to the Great Hall and started singing: “Here come the losers of today/ we’re gonna drag their asses/ like we did last year/ do you remember?” as soon as the team came down the stairs. 

Both Malcolm and Cam looked a little uncertain walking by, but Rob just called: “Please... This is neither sung very well nor versed good, so stop it!” which caused a few bystanders to snicker. No one could bear the smug behaviour of the Slytherins anymore, not even the Hufflepuffs who were hard to upset and had friendly connections everywhere.

After breakfast, during which all of the team members tried to eat, their success in doing so varying, they went down to the stadium together and into the dressing room, leaving Cam and Luke, who had been tagging along, behind under the grey sky. 

 

A minute later, a hugely grinning Cam tugged at Rob’s elbow. “I think you’re right,” he announced.

A wide grin spread on Rob’s face. “Told ya so! Now, use that energy to win this game!”

What seemed like mere minutes later, Tom called them together in a huddle. “Okay guys! This is our chance for revenge! We’re going out there and wiping those smug looks off their faces, you hear me? We’re gonna crumble ‘em, they won’t even know what’s happening! Show them who’s the loser day, and it’s certainly not us! I know you can do this, so let’s go!”

With that, they stepped onto the field, where they were greeted by roaring applause and some whistling from the Slytherins. While the sky was clouded, there was no wind and it didn’t look like it would rain soon. Perfect conditions for playing Quidditch. The Slytherin team, led by Peyton Manning, was already out, waiting for them.

“Captains, shake hands!” Madame Bones, the referee, demanded and Tom and Manning both took a step forward to shake hands, Tom with a quite relaxed expression, Manning sneering at him.

“Ready to lose, Brady?” he spit out Tom’s name.

Tom calmly looked at the rest of Slytherin’s team. “With that team of yours, we’re gonna throw you out of the stadium without a problem,” he remarked. 

Peyton looked angry: he had lost great parts of last year’s team, because they had left the school and everyone suspected that he hadn’t been able to form a well-functioning team out of the new guys. Also, one or two of his players were just plain stupid and some suspected they wouldn’t be able to pour water out of a shoe with the instruction printed on the heel.

“Enough, now!” Madame Bones looked ready to lose her much-feared temper before the game even began. “Players, mount your brooms. Rise with my whistle in three ... two ...“ 

As she blew her whistle, 13 players rose into the air. Derek Wolfe, one of Slytherin’s Beaters, stayed behind, only rising up after an angry shout from Peyton, looking disoriented. The crowd laughed and even the whole Gryffindor team couldn’t resist a small smile, while taking their places. 

With a second whistle, Madame Bones threw the Quaffel in the air, a younger student released the two Bludgers and the Golden Snitch and the game began.

“And off we go!” The magically amplified voice of Anne Jordan, the commentator from Ravenclaw, boomed through the stadium.

Tom managed to catch the Quaffel and passed it to Cam, who managed to surprise his opponent and get surprisingly close to Slytherin’s goalposts. But instead of trying to score himself, he passed to Julian, who had sneaked up behind the Slytherin’s back. Jules didn’t hesitate and threw the Quaffel through the right hand Goalring.

“Nice one! The first points this year go to Gryffindor – half a minute after the beginning Gryffindor scores for 10 – 0!” Anne announced. 

Tom, Cam and Jules high-fived, Malcolm threw his fist into the air, Danny, who was circling over the other players, let out a “Yessss” and Rob and JJ were chasing after the Bludgers. 

Peyton shouted angrily and led the answering attack, but thanks to a carefully-placed Bludger by JJ and a very good reaction from Malcolm nothing came from it.

After that, all of the players lost their feeling for the time passing and everyone only noticed bits and pieces, fully consumed by their own duty, only stopping when one or both of the Seekers jumped into action. After one of these occasions, Gryffindor was leading 120 – 20 and flying an attack, Tom had to dodge a Bludger coming at him. The pass he was throwing to Cam ended up too high and yet, Cam managed to catch the Quaffel, yanking his broom up and plucking the Quaffel out of the air - one-handed. The crowd drew in their breath as one.

“What an amazing catch from Gryffindor’s new Chaser ... and he dodges a Slytherin ... Careful, a Blodger!” Anne called out. 

Cam had seen the Blodger as well and in the last second managed to do a barrel roll and then threw the ball right through the middle Goalring. The crowd went wild and Manning was ranting at his team members.

Suddenly, Danny was speeding up again: he had seen the Snitch. So had Slytherin’s Seeker, Von Miller. The two of them raced head to head, when Derek Wolfe sent out a Bludger – and took out his own Seeker. Seconds later, Danny’s fingers closed around the snitch and the stadium exploded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *This is a direct quote from David Levithan and Rachel Cohn’s “Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List“ (which I didn’t read. Yet. So probably this is completely out of context. Sry for that.)


	6. What to do?

Ever since JJ and Rob had talked to him, Luke was a mess. Confusion, hope, and, at the same time a slight trace of fear were battling for domination inside him. Could it really be that Cam was feeling the same way he did? What the hell was he supposed to do now? Rob and JJ had a reputation to know such things and yet... What if they were wrong? 

Luke exhaled heavily and stared in the air without actually seeing something. Not that there was much to see, the emerald green drapes of his bed shut out every light. In the bed next to his, Luke knew, Cam was sleeping. Cam had been surprisingly calm that evening, considering that tomorrow was his first Quidditch match and Tom had nudged him and the other team members to go to bed early. Luke had stayed behind and had reread an essay for his Charms class about the Summoning Charm. Ironically, Luke wasn’t able to concentrate anymore with Cam next to him since Rob and JJ’s revelation, when before he could only concentrate with Cam right by his side.

Now, lying in his bed, Luke wasn’t able to fall asleep. His mind was racing. He was pretty sure that Rob and JJ had also talked to Cam the day after they had talked to Luke, and he liked to think that after that evening something had changed. Or was it just his imagination that Cam sometimes shot him questioning glances and that there seemed to be an expectant air surrounding them? Did Cam’s finger really linger a touch too long on his, whenever Cam handed something to him,or did Luke just want it to be that way?

Frustrated, Luke got up again, pulled on a pair a sweatpants and a t-shirt lying around, and tiptoed out of the bedroom, so as to not disturb the other guys, all of them fast asleep. He crept down the stairs to the common room, which was completely empty, the fires nearly burned down. For a second, Luke just stood in the middle of the common room, before walking over to Rob’s and JJ’s armchair and sitting down. He frowned. 

Sitting down, the chair was a lot more spacious than it should be. Then a smile spread on his face. Growing up in a wizard family – though one with very strong connections to the Muggle world – he knew exactly what an increasing charm was. Still smiling, he curled up and stared into the dying fire closest to him. His smile slowly vanished, as his thoughts returned to paths he knew so well and once again went around in circles.

Luke was jerked out of his thoughts, when suddenly someone next to him said: “Why aren’t you in bed?” Luke looked up, into the eyes of Julian Edelman.

“Can’t sleep. Over thinking. What about you?” Luke replied. “Shouldn’t you get a good night’s rest before the game tomorrow?” Since he always accompanied Cam everywhere and had gotten to know the team quite well, he felt comfortable enough to ask this.

Jules sighed, pulled another chair close and sat down. He leaned back and stared into the fire for a few minutes before answering. Finally, Jules shook his head and looked up to Luke. “Dreamed and couldn’t get back to sleep. What are you thinking about that you can’t sleep?”

Luke was aware of the fact that Jules was avoiding a direct answer, but decided not the press the point at the moment. Instead, he blew out some air and answered: “Cam. I ... Rob and JJ told me, that he feels the same way I do, clearly, they said. But I don’t know if they’re right and what I should do and...” he broke off.

Jules looked at him with an unreadable expression. “Of course he does feel the same way you do. Hell, give it some time, and you two will be like Rob and JJ. The only difference will be that you’ll be a couple and they are not.” Jules’ face hardened a bit and Luke could swear he heard him mumble: “You lucky guys.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Luke asked. He didn’t know what exactly Jules’ problem was, but he knew that talking about a problem often helped.

Again, Jules stared into the fire for some time before answering. When he looked at Luke this time, he looked vulnerable and tired. “I ... I don’t know how to talk about it.” He began. “It’s just that ... ah, I don’t know ...” He broke off and was silent for a moment, before asking: “How did you know that you are in love with Cam?”

That question caught Luke off-guard. How had he known? He thought back to countless days he and Cam had spent together since they had met on their first day of school. They had become friends when they discovered that they shared a passion for American Football, when Cam, who was Muggle-born, unpacked a Carolina Panthers jersey to sleep in on their very first evening. After that ... they had spent every day with each other, and when they discovered that they didn’t live far apart, they had arranged for their parents to meet. Luckily, their parents had become friends as well and so the two of them had very rarely spent a day apart the last three years. At the end of their second year, they had sneaked out onto the grounds in the middle of the night and had been caught by the Head of Gryffindor House, Professor Johnson, who taught Transfiguration. Since it hadn’t been the first time they had been caught where they shouldn’t be, both of them were forbidden to attend next year’s try-outs for the Quidditch team. Even though Luke was happier with both feet on the ground, he had been just as heart-broken as Cam had been.

“Well, I think it all began last year... After we were forbidden to attend the try-outs, Cam and I spent every minute we could afford to train for this year’s try-outs and ...” Luke halted. “Even though I hadn’t thought it was possible, we spent even more time together. And then ... Cam can be such a clown sometimes and one evening, when we were flying together, he pretended to lose control over his broom. He meant it to be funny, but my heart nearly stood still and I couldn’t breathe... After that, I thought a bit more about our relationship and ... I don’t know, one day I just knew that he is everything for me, that I can’t lose him ... I don’t want to spend a day in my life without him.” He looked at Jules. “Does that make sense?”

Jules had a strained look on his face and when he turned his face away, Luke was sure he saw tears in Jules’ eyes. 

“Hey.” Without thinking, Luke stood up and climbed in Jules’ lap, wrapping his arms around the older one. “Don’t cry...” Surprisingly enough, Jules hugged him back and buried his face at Luke’s shoulder.

After a while, Jules took a deep breath and let go off Luke. “I should go to bed now,” he mumbled, and Luke got the hint.

Standing up, Luke offered: “If you want to talk about whatever bothers you, you know where to find me.”

Jules looked at him with a slight smile. “Yeah, that’s what JJ and Rob keep telling me as well... But you,” he pointed at Luke. “You should definitely act on your feelings. Everyone can see that Cam feels the same way!” With that, Jules turned around and climbed up the stairs. 

Luke sat down again in Rob and JJ’s armchair, thoughtfully staring into the fire until it completely burned down.

\----------

The next morning, Luke went down into the Great Hall with the team. When they walked by the singing Slytherins, he grabbed Cam’s hand and pressed it reassuringly; during breakfast he nearly forced some food onto Cam, who ate everything he was given but not a single bite more. Walking down to the stadium, all of them were quiet, even Rob and JJ. 

At last, they were standing in front of the changing room and while the others already went to change, Cam and Luke stayed behind.

Pulling Cam into a tight hug, Luke whispered: “You gonna rock this, man!” And then the courage left him, so instead of kissing Cam on the cheek, he only dragged his lips across Cam’s cheek, which could be interpreted as an inadvertence.

Feeling slightly sick, Luke made his way over to the stands, while Cam vanished into the locker room. Luke was, for same parts, scolding himself and worried about Cam. Quidditch games could be harsh and there was no love between the Slytherins and Gryffindors. 

As the stands around him filled up, Luke was looking down at the yet-empty pitch with a furrowed brow, when Clay Matthews turned up next him, his hair pulled into a messy bun. “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Clay said, “About that thing between you and Cam. Are you two a couple now or not?”

Luke smiled. “We’re not. Yet. So Rob and JJ did use you to engage me so they could talk to Cam undisturbed?”

Clay nodded. “Yes, they did. But seriously, why are you not a couple yet?”

Luke shrugged. “I guess were both ... afraid? And don’t ask what we’re afraid of; the more I think about it, the more absurd it seems to be!” To distract both himself and Clay, he asked: “So, are you actually planning to pull of that prank or was that just to divert me?”

Clay chuckled. “It started out as a diversionary tactic, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea, so I guess I’m going to go ahead with it.”

Luke grinned, but before he could ask when Clay was planning to pull the prank off, the teams came onto the pitch and Luke’s attention was glued solely to Cam. He watched how Cam nervously moved his weight from one foot to the other, while the captains shook hands and he saw exactly how Cam’s nervousness vanished the second he pushed himself off the ground. Along with the others, Luke actually laughed out loud when one of the Slytherins stayed behind on the ground and Manning’s angry voice carried to the stands.

However, the second the match started, Luke’s eyes never left Cam and cheering and worrying – when Cam showed off some of his more reckless moves – Luke lost every sense of time. After another quite daring stunt from Cam, a barrel roll for Merlin’s sake!, Luke, along with everyone else, stopped breathing, while the two seekers raced for the snitch.

And then – Gryffindor had won! Awaking from the numbness he had gone into, Luke made his way down the stands, through cheering students, while the team landed. With a big leap, Luke jumped over the barrier and ran over to the big huddle that was the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He had only one thing on his mind: Cam.

Cam obviously saw him coming and detached himself from the group, opening his arms wide and grinning from one ear to the other. Luke threw himself into his friend’s arms, nearly knocking Cam over, but neither of them cared.

“You were great!” Luke exclaimed, taking Cam’s face into his hands. And then, forgetting his every doubt, he leaned in and kissed his friend passionately. After a second of surprise, Cam returned the kiss just as passionate, tenderly biting the other one’s bottom lip and then searching for Luke’s tongue with his own, causing Luke to sigh happily.

**********

They drew apart when both of them needed some air. Cam strengthened his grip around Luke’s waist and pulled his friend close to himself. Luke in turn wrapped his arms around Cam’s neck. After capturing Luke’s lips again for a short, sweet kiss, Cam pressed his forehead against Luke’s, smiling at his friend. Only then did they notice Cam’s teammates, who cheered at them, causing Luke to blush.

Cam managed to pull Luke even closer and whispered sensually in his ear: “I like it, when you blush... But I should be the only one causing my boyfriend to blush.”

Luke’s cheeks took on an even darker shade of red and he hid his face on Cam’s shoulder, who chuckled and turned his attention to his fellow teammates. “Gentleman, m’lady,” Gisele had turned up next to Tom, “you embarrass my boyfriend. So, if you could kindly consider celebrating the win somewhere else, I would appreciate it.” Cam winked at his friends.

Rob and JJ jumped in: “Everyone into the showers, then into the Common Room, we’re organising snacks and Butterbeer!” The rest of the team cheered and scattered, while the stands emptied out completely. Cam and Luke, whose cheeks were still slightly red, stayed behind with Rob and JJ, both of them grinning widely.

“Soooo,” Rob began.

“You two finally made it,” JJ finished.

“Well,” Cam said cheekily, “We were faster than you two.”

“Naa, Cam, you know the two of them are just friends,” Luke reminded his new boyfriend with a sideway glance to JJ, whose face clouded for a moment. “But thank you so much. If we can return the favour…” Luke proposed.

“Return the favour?” Cam asked, confused.

“Yes, return the favour,” Luke answered emphatically. “Don’t you think as well that Rob and Clay would fit together quite well? I’m pretty sure we could arrange something for you.” Luke winked at Rob who seemed to consider this proposal. JJ on the other hand looked like he was seriously thinking about manslaughter.

Suddenly, Cam understood Luke’s plan and while he protectively pulled Luke closer – better safe than sorry – he said, smiling widely: “Yes, I think that would be a fitting match. And you know what, I think Rafaela has a little crush on JJ. I think the two of them would make a cute couple.”

Rob’s face clouded instantly, while JJ just looked at Cam and Luke with small eyes and an unreadable facial expression. At the same time, the two of them started talking.

“He’s not going to date Gisele’s little sister!” Rob exclaimed, while JJ stated in a disbelieving voice: “You’re trying to make us jealous!”

JJ looked at the couple in front of him, before looking at Rob next to him. “And it fucking works! You two-“ he pointed at Cam and Luke, “go! Hurry, then you’ll hopefully catch Jules in the changing room. Tell him to take care of getting snacks and Butterbeer. We’ll see you later!”

Cam and Luke quickly made their way over to the changing rooms, leaving Rob and JJ behind. In front of the changing room, Gisele was waiting for Tom.

“Is Jules still here?” Cam asked, as the two of them reached Gisele, who nodded.

“All of them are still in there. They take their damn time,” she answered and though her words were a little harsh, there was a smile on her face. “Where did you leave Rob and JJ?”

“Oh, they needed to talk alone,” Cam replied and pulled Luke with him into the changing room. Julian, Malcolm and Danny looked up, all of them in various states of dressing.

“Where did you leave Rob and JJ?” Danny echoed Gisele. This time, Luke answered.

Tom looked out of the Captain’s office, where he was changing. “Oh, you made them talk about their relationship?” He asked curiously. Cam nodded, while undressing. Tom frowned. “I’m actually not sure if that was a good idea or not,” he mumbled more to himself than to the others.

Jules looked at him curiously. “Why do you think that? The two of them are in a relationship – the only thing that’s missing is them admitting it.”

Tom shrugged. “Just a feeling. I could be entirely wrong. But one way or another, they had to talk one day. Today is just as well or bad as any other day...”

Luke looked at Jules: “JJ literally ordered us to tell you to take care of the catering for –“ He was sidetracked when a completely naked Cam strolled over to the showers.

The others laughed, until Tom called them out. “Stop it, boys. Now, it is nearly dinner time anyway, so why don’t you organise a few snacks and stuff for afterwards, Jules? Since tomorrow is Sunday, I guess it’s going to be a long night...” He winked at his teammates, who were surprised – Tom wasn’t known as someone to party much – but they agreed happily enough.

A little while later, Luke was alone with his thoughts and the knowledge that just in the other room, Cam was showering. When he thought about the water running along Cam’s well defined body, Luke swallowed hard. Then, he mumbled: “Fuck it,” undressed quickly and went over to the showers. 

In the doorway, he hesitated and looked at Cam, who stood there with closed eyes and his head tilted back. His thoughts hadn’t done reality justice. Luke stood completely still, taking in his boyfriend’s beautiful body. His boyfriend! He hadn’t completely realised that yet.

Cam seemed to sense him standing there, because he opened his eyes and looked at Luke: “I began to think you’d never come,” he said with a hoarse voice. “Come on, join me.” He extended a hand towards Luke, who closed the gap between them with big, fast strides. The second he was close enough, Cam grabbed him by his waist and pressed him with his back against the wall.

“Hey,” Luke protested, but he was immediately silenced by Cam hungrily kissing him and pressing his body against Luke’s. Cam’s hands were roaming along Luke’s sides, his cock was – like Luke’s – already hard and pressing against Luke’s hip.

When Cam started to kiss and nibble his way along Luke’s neck, all Luke could do was wrap his arms around Cam’s neck and gasp for air. Luke let his head sink against the wall behind him and closed his eyes, felt the warm water from the shower running down his body, the cold wall on his back and – Cam. Cam’s body pressed against his own, Cam’s hands all over his body, Cam’s hard cock, Cam’s lips and teeth, Cam’s hoarse voice in his ears.

Luke moaned and tried to press his body even closer to Cam’s, his fingers starting to discover Cam’s body, lightly gliding along Cam’s well-defined shoulders and arms, across his chest and his stomach.

When he grabbed Cam’s butt, pulling him closer, it was Cam’s turn to moan, which turned Luke even more on than he already was. He also knew immediately that he wanted to hear this sound over and over again; he would never be tired of it.

Slowly, Luke’s hands wandered along Cam’s body, until he finally reached Cam’s cock. Hearing Cam moaning put a big smile on Luke’s face, which turned into a groan, when Cam wrapped his fingers around Luke’s cock as well.

“Cam,” Luke sighed as Cam stroked his cock. “I...” He wasn’t able to finish his sentence because Cam’s other hand closed around his balls.

“I know,” Cam murmured, his lips leaving light kisses on Luke’s neck. “Come for me, beautiful,” he demanded with a coarse voice, pushing Luke over the edge. A second later, hearing his boyfriend come with his name on his lips, seeing Luke’s flushed face, and with Luke’s hand closing stronger around his cock, Cam came too.

******  
When Cam and Luke stepped out of the dressing room, it was raining lightly and they ran back to the castle, hands entwined, pulling their robes over their heads with their free hand. In the entrance hall, they met the rest of the team, who were on their way to dinner. Rob and JJ were missing.

All during dinner, their fellow Gryffindors padded them on the shoulders, congratulating them on the win, some of them asking after Rob and JJ and even students from the other houses, Slytherins of course excluded, came over to chat about the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is about the most graphic thing I've ever written. Sorry for the awkwardness...
> 
> Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful easter weekend!


	7. Let's talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone and welcome to Chapter 7. First of all, sorry that I'm a bit late, university started this week again and I had a full day yesterday. Second, this is the last chapter I have finished so now I'm TRYING to keep up the weekly schedule but I'm a bit in a writing slump and now with university I might not make it. Third, thanks a lot to the tumblr-Nonnie for reminding me that there are indeed people out there whole wait for this, sometimes I forget about it. And, last but not least, as always many thanks to my Beta-reader SubwayWolf, whose input is invaluable. So, please enjoy this chapter and I'll go and write some more. (Also, I keep meaning to update the tags, but I can't seem to find the time. Which of course means that it isn't important enough, but I keep meaning to do it.)

Half an hour after the game, the Quidditch stadium was completely empty and silent. Once in a while, the wooden stands creaked, recovering from the weight of the students that had been standing on them for half a day. The goal rings rose in a darkened sky; the clouds had taken on a darker shade of grey and twilight fell, taking off the sharp edges of everything. A light wind picked up, rustling in the trees in the distant forbidden forest and moving the house banners hanging off the stands.

Right in the middle of the dark pitch stood Rob and JJ, looking at each other; JJ radiating calm confidence, Rob with a slight nervousness.

Finally, Rob spoke. “I don’t want you to date anyone besides me.” His eyes met JJ’s greenish-blue ones. “I don’t want anything to change between us...” He broke off. “I... I know I sound crazy, but I just have this feeling that with labelling what we’ve got, it’s somehow going to change...” Rob had started to gesticulate animatedly and was pacing in front of JJ, who just looked at his friend, not moving a muscle. “I don’t want anything to change!” Rob repeated silently, with hanging shoulders.

Only now did JJ move: “Are you finished?” Rob nodded and JJ built up in front of his friend. “Then listen to me. I know that you are afraid that something’s gonna change the second we announce that we are a couple, but that’s not gonna happen. People will say: “Oh yeah, finally” and turn back to whatever they’ve been doing. The only thing that’s going to change is that I can finally call you mine. Damn, I love you and I want to show the whole world that you are mine! I nearly went crazy over the summer, when I couldn’t see you because my parents suddenly decided to move to the other side of the country, when I couldn’t fall asleep next to you, couldn’t hear you laugh and HAD TO READ YOUR DAMN LETTERS, TELLING ME HOW MUCH FUN YOU HAD WITH THAT MUGGLE AGAIN.” JJ’s eyes seemed to throw out icy blue sparks. He stopped to catch his breath.

In the silence that followed, Rob said: “You know, that Muggle spent a lot of time with me because I was fucking obnoxious, missing the person I love the most.” He wrapped his arms around JJ, who was tense for a second longer, and then returned the hug, closing his eyes.

“So, we’re officially a couple now?” JJ asked after some time.

“Yeah.” Rob nodded.

JJ nuzzled his nose into Rob’s short hair and pulled him closer. “And do I get a kiss from my boyfriend as well?” he asked, smiling. Rob smiled as well when he took JJ’s face into his hands and slowly leaned in, his brown eyes meeting JJ’s blue ones.

When their lips met for a slow, deep kiss, JJ sighed happily and strengthened his grip around Rob’s waist, his hands slowly making their way down to Rob’s ass.

Both of them had lost their sense of time, when it started to rain lightly. They looked up and then at each other, laughing.

“Let’s go somewhere dry,” JJ suggested.

Rob smiled at him cheekily. “Or maybe somewhere wet, but more private ... Like the showers?”

JJ grinned back. “I like that idea.”

But when they arrived in the changing room, a moaning from the showers let them stop dead in their tracks.

Rob giggled. “Seems like we’re not the only ones thinking about ... a ‘shower’ ... after the game!” He was still giggling and halfway over to the showers, when JJ yanked him back.

“We’re not going to walk in on them,” JJ hissed, lifting one eyebrow and throwing Rob a sharp glance. “We’re gonna let them have some fun ... and talk with them later.” He grinned and Rob broke out into laughter, quickly muffling the sound with his sleeve. 

Grinning widely, JJ dragged his shaking boyfriend out of the changing room, before pushing him up against the nearest wall and kissing him hungrily. Rob inhaled surprised and returned the kiss eagerly, pressing his body against JJ’s and letting his fingers wander along JJ’s sides.

JJ was the one who ended the kiss. “Options?” he asked with a lazy smile, their noses almost touching, both of them breathing heavily.

“Dinner and party with the others,” Rob suggested, “Should be nearly time.”

JJ shook his head no. “I don’t want to share you tonight,” he whispered, and Rob leaned in for a short kiss.

When he pulled back, he grinned mischievously and yet he managed to shoot JJ an innocent look. “Tom’s office, until dinner is in full swing and our two lovebirds under the shower are gone. When everyone is in the Great Hall, we go up to the bedroom...” wrinkling his nose, he added: “Or better, first a shower and then to bed?” Both of them certainly needed a shower.

JJ grinned and nodded, then pulled the two of them through the changing room into Tom’s office. He closed the door just seconds before the shower was turned off. Rob leaned against Tom’s desk, which was scattered with papers, while JJ stood next to the door, watching Rob, his whole body aching to press against him. They listened to the sounds coming from the other side of the door: soft rustling of clothing, a low murmur and once what sounded like a slap, followed by a surprised “Cam!” and laughter, which ended abruptly. JJ lifted his eyebrows in surprise and Rob was biting on his hand in an effort not to laugh out loud.

Damn was Rob beautiful. Breathing hard, JJ let his head fall against the door, his eyes closed.

Thud.

Silence.

“Did you hear that?” That was definitely Cam’s voice.

“Hmmm.” Luke sounded slightly breathless. “It’s probably nothing, no one’s here anymore.”

“I guess you’re right.” The movements on the other side of the door picked up again and JJ opened his eyes. Rob looked at him curiously.

Ooops. JJ formed the word soundlessly with his lips, before pushing himself of the door, towards Rob. With a few quick strides he made his way over to Rob, his arms closing around Rob’s hips.

JJ smiled and pressed his body close to Rob’s. “Since we’re officially a couple, I can’t keep my hands off you,” he whispered in his ear and pressed a short kiss onto Rob’s lips. Or rather, he intended to give Rob a short kiss, but Rob had closed his arms around JJ’s neck and returned the kiss enthusiastically.

Neither of them heard the door to the changing room slamming shut, they were too absorbed with each other: Rob was sitting on the edge of Tom’s desk, his legs wrapped around JJ’s hips, his arms around JJ’s neck.

Rob didn’t hear the door to the changing room slamming shut, he was way too absorbed with JJ: Rob was sitting on the edge of Tom’s desk, his legs wrapped around JJ’s hips, his arms around JJ’s neck, JJ’s hands on his sides, under his shirt, JJ’s lips kissing and nibbling along his jaw, down his neck. Rob moaned and strengthened the grip of his legs around JJ’s waist, when JJ teasingly bit him.

“You’re going to leave a mark,” Rob whispered, his voice rough. He felt JJ grinning against his neck.

“That’s the plan,” JJ answered before sucking and licking over Rob’s neck, causing him to moan again.

“I... I hate you,” Rob didn’t sound convincing at all and the only answer he got was a chuckle and a hum. JJ’s hands wandered between their bodies, opened Rob’s pants and tucked at them.

“Take them off,” he demanded, and Rob looked at him with big eyes, before standing up and trying to get his shoes off without opening them, his eyes never leaving JJ’s face. Finally, he got his shoes off, but before he could do anything else, JJ pressed himself against Rob again, pressing his lips onto Rob’s, slipping his hands into Rob’s briefs, shoving them down so they landed around Rob’s ankles. While Rob stepped more or less graciously out of his pants, JJ’s hands wandered up on his body, under his shirt.

A little while later, Rob leaned again against Tom’s desk, for fear that his knees would buckle: JJ had kissed his way along Rob’s jaw to his ear, had whispered: “Don’t move,” and know kneeled before Rob, his hands on Rob’s hips and his tongue slowly licking along Rob’s hard shaft. 

When JJ closed his lips around the tip of his cock, Rob’s one hand closed around the edge of the desk, while the other helplessly wiped over the desk and scattered some papers. All seven hells could break loose at the moment and Rob wouldn’t care a bit, this felt so damn good – he inhaled sharply and tensed up, because while JJ was certainly quite enthusiastic, this was new to him and he had not yet managed to keep his teeth out of the way.

“’Orry,” JJ managed to say around Rob’s cock and he apologetically licked across Rob’s tip and along the length of Rob’s shaft. Rob just moaned in return and let his head fall back, he really didn’t care right now, this felt too good and he knew ...

“I’m coming,” he managed to say.

JJ let Rob’s cock slip out from between his lips and grinned up to Rob. “I certainly hope you do.” Rob managed a slight grin and as JJ ran his tongue across the tip and the length of his cock, he came – all over JJ’s chin and chest, but neither of them cared. Rob just pulled JJ up and close to his body, catching his lips for a deep kiss, tasting himself and smearing his cum over his own shirt as well.

Finally, JJ broke the kiss. “I really need a shower now,” he said and his cheeks turned a bright pink. “I came into my pants...”

Rob just pulled him in for another kiss and let his fingers wander under JJ’s shirt. “Then let’s get you out of all these clothes,” he smiled and shortly after, the two of them enjoyed the hot water.

*******  
After the shower, cleaning up their clothes – it really paid off to know your cleaning spells – and returning Tom’s office to its original state, Rob and JJ made their way to the Gryffindor common room. In the Great Hall, they ran into Eli Manning, a tall, dark haired sixth-year Hufflepuff; brother of Peyton Manning and the House’s Quidditch team captain, who grinned when he saw the two of them strolling through the hall, their arms around each other’s waist.

“Good game,” he announced. “I especially enjoyed the part where Peyton’s new Beater stayed on the ground...” he broke off because he was giggling so hard. JJ and Rob joined in the laughter.

“We didn’t have anything to do with that,” Rob managed to say.

“No sympathy for your brother, I gather,” JJ asked.

Eli just shrugged and grinned. “He really got on my nerves all summer long... He kinda deserved it.” He winked at the couple in front of him. “And really, it’s about time that Hufflepuff wins the Cup again.”

On this remark, JJ and Rob exclaimed “You wish!” and “Yeah, sure!” at the same time, then all three of them broke into laughter again.

“No, seriously, I do have a quite promising team and I plan to make the competition as interesting as possible,” Eli proclaimed.

“Man, we certainly hope so,” JJ answered with a grin.

“It’s gonna be a wonderful competition between our houses,” Rob stated and all three nodded.

“I heard Ravenclaw’s got a good team as well, though I don’t think that they managed to find a quality replacement for Beast Mode. No one’s as good as him,” Eli sighed. 

The three of them considered this in silence. Marshawn Lynch, whom everyone, even the teachers, had only called Beast Mode, had left the school at the end of last year with his N.E.W.T.s. Even during his years at the school, he had been a bit of a legend: he was a Muggleborn and one of the best, yet mostly unsuccessful Seekers the school had ever seen, or so it was said; he had only won the Quidditch Cup once, in his sixth year, the first year he had been team captain of Ravenclaw’s team. 

Even in his first years he had looked a bit rough and over the years, he had adopted dreadlocks, something called “grill” – a piece of jewellery worn over the teeth which made his smile even more ... interesting – and in his last years some tattoos had decorated his chocolate-coloured skin. New students who hadn’t made his acquaintance yet, regularly had turned around when they saw him coming down the halls, leaving fast in the opposite direction, but he had been a very good student and an even better Quidditch player and now played for the Seattle Seahawks.

“Yes, he certainly had something special...” Rob’s voice trailed off as he remembered some of the mostly spectacular catches by Beast Mode. 

JJ nodded and thought about how Marshawn had shown him, Rob, Tom and Jules some manoeuvres for the match and some tactics to cope with trash talking while he and Rob were still first-years. Beast Mode had mastered both skills nearly to perfection. (Actually he could intimidate the younger kids with just a grin and a wink, but the older students knew him quite well and then it didn’t work as well anymore.) 

Eli thoughtfully stared into nothingness. “I need to go,” he announced, and without another word he turned on his heels and headed back to the Hufflepuff common room. 

JJ and Rob looked puzzled at this sudden departure, but they quickly brushed it off and continued their way to the Gryffindor common room, where they settled down in their chair and waited for the other’s to finish dinner and join them.


	8. Everyday Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *tiptoes into the room* Anyone still here?  
> I'm so, so sorry it took so long, but here is FINALLY chapter 8! Also, I'm fairly sure that next tuesday there'll be chapter 9 - with a whole new perspective! As always, the wonderful SubwayWolf was my beta reader - I appreciate it so much.  
> Well, that's it, sorry again and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

On Monday morning, no one had really gone back to the daily routine yet. The Slytherins were munching over their loss, the Gryffindors were still slightly hungover from the long party night from Saturday to Sunday, and both the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had been fed up enough with the Slytherins’ behaviour that they now showed their joy over the high loss. So during breakfast, the atmosphere in the Great Hall was quite cheerful - the Slytherin table, of course, an exception.

Malcolm was the first one to arrive, closely followed by Tom and Gisele, who quickly got distracted by a discussion about the latest essay she and her friend had had to write for Ancient Runes, which left Tom and Malcolm talking about the Quidditch League. 

The next one to arrive was Danny, who sported a surprisingly-unhappy face. He lightened up when he sat down and started filling his plate, inserting himself into Tom’s and Malcolm’s conversation without a problem. Every now and again they were interrupted by passing students from their own house as well as from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff who wanted to exchange a few sentences about the Gryffindor-Slytherin match. 

The three of them were soon joined by JJ and Rob. When the new couple walked into the Great Hall holding hands, JJ’s little brother Derek turned up out of nowhere behind them. He overtook the two, just to stop a few paces in front of them, shouting: “EVERYONE! My brother and his boyfriend finally made their relationship official!” 

This declaration caused half a second of silence and most of the students looked up from their breakfast, just to shrug their shoulders and return to their conversations as if nothing had happened.

From the Gryffindor table, a lone voice called: “What a surprise.” 

Professor Johnson, who had turned up in the door frame, remarked: “Well, it’s about time,” before sweeping past the stunned group. 

JJ managed to give his brother a small clap on the back of the head without letting go of Rob’s hand and the three of them parted, Derek joining his classmates on the Ravenclaw table and Rob and JJ sitting down next to Danny, Malcolm and Tom who hadn’t stopped their heated discussion about whether or not the Harlem Shuffle, a special trick play, could be a possibility for the Gryffindor team or not, when Derek had declared JJ’s and Rob’s relationship. 

Tom thought the play was way too dangerous and they should concentrate on perfecting other, less dangerous and more effective team moves and anyway, he said, the move would probably get forbidden if it wasn’t already. Danny thought it was at least worth a try, now that they had Cam on their team and while Malcolm liked the move itself, he was arguing that when _they_ started throwing the Quaffel through the goal rings from the “back side”, the other teams would try to do that as well, resulting in a harder job for him and probably more goals in general, both scored and conceded. JJ and Rob were mostly unaffected by this, because their job never changed, but both of them were arguing that the team should at least try to learn the move, with an older student or maybe Madame Bones standing ready to catch any falling players.

They were interrupted when Jules sat down next to them, a huge grin on his face, pointing over to the Slytherin table and the assembled Slytherin Team, most making themselves as small as possible and Peyton Manning radiating anger, waiting for anyone to make a wrong move.

“You can almost see the black cloud of anger above his head,” remarked Danny, who had turned around along with JJ and Rob to look at Peyton, laughing along with the others.

“I’d try not to get into the situation the Slytherin team is now in,” Malcolm said while putting a load of scrambled eggs on his plate and Jules, who was chewing on a whole hash brown he had somehow managed to fit into his mouth, nodded. Tom, JJ and Rob grinned. 

Danny said: “Me neither. I guess we better win every game, then,” and the lot of them broke into laughter again and resumed their discussion about the Harlem Shuffle, where they had been interrupted by Jules, who was all in favor of trying the move.

Luke and Cam arrived shortly before the end of breakfast, hand in hand and all giggly, Luke’s cheeks tinted slightly red. They arrived next to the team the same time Gisele did, picking up Tom so they could go part of the way to their classes together.

While getting up, Tom ended the discussion: “I’ll think about it, but I’ll have to talk with Madame Bones and Professor Johnson if they approve. There’s no need to try such a risky move when we’re not allowed to play it out during the game.” And, turning back to Cam and Luke, who just sat down: “You’re late, Cam. I want my players to eat well, so please make sure you’ll have the time to do so.” With that he and Gisele went off, launching right back into an earlier conversation about their Charms class.

“What were you guys talking about?” Luke asked while shoveling bacon on his and Cam’s plate, while Cam in turn filled both their plates with eggs.

“We were discussing whether or not we, as a team, should try to fly the Harlem Shuffle,” Danny explained, because Jules was leaving as well and Malcolm was totally fascinated by Rob trying to nonverbally cast a spell, furrowing his brow. On the mention of the Harlem Shuffle, Cam froze and Luke looked confused.

“You’re kidding, right?!” Cam exclaimed.

Luke asked: “The _what_ shuffle?” 

Both of them looked at Danny with huge eyes. Danny patiently, with a smile in the edge of his mouth, answered first Cam’s and then Luke’s question: “Yes, the Harlem Shuffle. It’s the special move of the American National Quidditch team that is … Let’s say quite daring and not easy, but it earns the team 20 points if flown correctly to the end.”

Jules, while walking away, added: “Cam would play a major part in it.” 

Cam started to cough and Danny rolled his eyes at Jules’s comment, foreseeing Luke’s reaction.

“But it’s not _dangerous ___, is it? How is it flown?” Luke demanded to know.

Cam had stopped coughing and looked at Danny with teary eyes. “You want me to fly Robert Green’s part?!” 

Danny nodded and turned to Luke. “Well, it might be a _tiny bit_ dangerous. Which is why Tom wants to talk to Madame Bones and Professor Johnson first. But let me just sketch it out for you - the Harlem Shuffle is loosely based on this Muggle sport, basketball, and the Harlem Globetrotters, a basketball team. Are you familiar with basketball?” Luke nodded and Danny continued. “So, this play is initiated by Gianni Fedele, who spins the Quaffle on top of his finger and shouts “Get ready, guys!” He then passes the Quaffle to Robert Green, who dribbles it on his broomstick for a moment and then passes it to the third Chaser, Debbie Muntz. She lets the Quaffle slide down her outstretched arms and behind her back and then throws it to Fedele, who passes it on to Green. Now, this was the main point in our discussion, because Green jumps off his broom and scores, while falling, from behind the goal post. Muntz then catches the Quaffle and scores again.” 

Luke was white as a sheet. “You expect Cam to jump of his broom?” His voice was barely more than a whisper. 

Cam, who had begun to eat, quickly tried to reassure him that everything would be done to make sure no one would be hurt and anyway they didn’t even know yet if they were allowed to try it, but Luke remained wary. 

*******  
“You want to do _what_?” Professor Johnson looked aghast. “Are you serious, Brady? The Harlem Shuffle?” She fixed Tom with her sharp eyes over her glasses before leaning back in her chair, obviously thinking. “Did you already talk with Madame Bones about it?” 

Tom, who sat on the other side of her desk, shook his head. “No, Ma’am.” 

Professor Johnson nodded slowly, then reached for a piece of pergament, wrote something down and then sent the letter off with a sweeping of her wand. “We’ll wait for Madame Bones. No need to discuss details when she won’t allow it.” Her gaze fixed Tom again. “I’m all in favour of testing the limits. And you know that I would very much like to have the Quidditch Cup back in my office, but the Harlem Shuffle? You want one of your players to _jump of his broom_?” 

Tom looked a little uncomfortable. “We discussed it with the team and they are in favour of trying it, with safety precautions of course.” 

“Well, we’ll see what Madame Bones has got to say about it.” 

********  
“That was most intense conversation I ever had. Let me tell you, it’s no fun when both Madame Bones and Professor Johnson put on their serious face.” Tom pretended to shiver. “Whenever we practice the play, one of them must be present. And trust me, they put a lot of emphasis on that.” 

The team had assembled in front of one of the fireplaces in the Gryffindor common room, everyone in an armchair, JJ and Rob as always sharing theirs. Malcolm nodded slowly, Jules and Cam were grinning excitedly, Danny hid his smile leaning back into the depth of his chair, and Rob and JJ - 

“Are you two even listening?” 

On Tom’s question, everyone’s attention focused on their Beaters, who were more concentrated on each other than on the team meeting. 

“Sure, we’re listening,” JJ grinned. 

And Rob boasted: “We’re able to multitask.” 

“You wish,” Jules mumbled, loud enough for the two of them and Danny to hear, who broke into laughter. 

__JJ and Rob shot them a sceptical glance, that clearly said ‘who’s talking?’. Since Jules’ words hadn’t carried far enough, the other three looked a bit confused and Danny leaned over to Malcolm to explain.

__“You had your heart in your pants because of Prof Johnson and Madame Bones,” JJ stated, while Malcolm grinned and in turn leaned to Cam and started whispering.

__“And they gave us permission to practice the Harlem Shuffle as long as one of them is there to supervise it,” Rob finished the summary.

__Tom rolled his eyes and the rest of the team grinned. “Okay, it’s getting late anyway, we’ll discuss the details tomorrow before training.”

__Tom concluded the meeting and the team scattered, Rob and JJ staying behind. Jules was grinning and waving at someone at the other end of the room, Danny frowned and vanished into the direction of the bedrooms, and Tom joined Gisele at one of the desks, but Cam stayed behind as well.

__Rob frowned at him. “What’s up? Why are you here and not over there, next to Luke?” he asked, pointing over to where Luke sat, deeply in a conversation with Clay Matthews.

__Cam sighed and sunk back in his chair. “We had a fight. Over Quidditch. He doesn’t want me to fly the Harlem Shuffle.”

__Rob made sympathetic noises, while JJ sided with Luke: “He’s worried about you. It is a dangerous play and he’s afraid that something will happen to you.”

__“I know, I know… But this play is a challenge and I’d love to master it! And anyway, there’ll always be supervision, so it’s not that dangerous. Yet he acts like I’m surely going to hurt myself the second I intend to fly the play.” Cam rolled his eyes.

__“We can try and talk with him,” Rob offered and JJ nodded, but Cam declined.

__“I’m sure we’ll make it, but thanks. I think we both only need to cool down a bit tonight, and tomorrow I’ll bring him to training so he can see that I’m as safe as is possible when playing Quidditch.” Cam yawned and got up. “Anyway, I’m off to bed. Good Night!” With that, he followed Danny up the stairs to the bedrooms and left Rob and JJ behind.

__“I wouldn’t have thought that Luke would react like that,” Rob remarked, tightening his grip around JJ’s waist.

__“Me neither,” JJ mumbled before planting kisses along Robs jawline, finally capturing Rob’s lips for a short, sweet kiss. “But I’m sure that they’ll figure it out.


End file.
